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Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
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Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, manufactured by Ball Aerospace, prior to being shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where it was launched on Dec. 14, 2009.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

United States satellite
Also known as: WISE
Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), U.S. satellite that observed astronomical objects at infrared wavelengths. It was launched on December 14, 2009, by a Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, into a polar orbit 500 km (310 miles) above Earth. WISE contained a 40-cm (16-inch) telescope that surveyed the entire sky at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns (1 micron is 10−6 metre) from January to August 2010. After...

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